Having only recently had to grudgingly recognize and concede that various Marxist ideologies, in part or in whole, had penetrated the uppermost levels of the Catholic hierarchy, I wish I had read this piece when it was first published.

Right up until Vatican II, the Church always and unhesitatingly officially condemned Communism. But Vatican II never even mentioned Communism, despite thousands of recommendations from key Church figures. That little fact should strike everyone as odd.

The article gives possible reasons for a purposeful omission of even a mention of Communism, and apparent censoring of the subject. There was the possibility of ecumenical discussions with Russian Orthodoxy, which was in bed with the Communist Party. There was the possibility of softening Russian treatment of Catholics and other oppressed religions. There was the possibility of evangelizing Communists, and "turning" Communism itself.

None of these reasons impressed me much, particularly the last one. Later, when the Berlin Wall came down, and when the Soviet Union economically collapsed, many (perhaps most) thought that Communism itself had collapsed. It didn't.

Communism is alive, well, and completely unaffected by what happened to the old Soviet Union. It is amazing to me that so many people still don't see that. The Soviet Union was a governmental organization; Communism is an idea; an ideology. It lives on.

Anyone who thinks Communism no longer presents a threat to the world is a fool. Communism has not changed at all.

And, guess what, after the Soviet Union fell, Russia is still Communist.

I recently came across this interview with Alice von
Hildebrand. The interview was conducted by the Latin Mass Magazine (I am a
subscriber). Alice von Hildebrand also writes for the New Oxford Review. Her
words speak to the present crises in the Catholic Church.

[The interview, reproduced in part]

TLM: In terms of the present crisis, when did you
first perceive something was terribly wrong?

AVH: It was in February 1965. I was taking a sabbatical year in Florence. My husband was
reading a theological journal, and suddenly I heard him burst into tears. I ran
to him, fearful that his heart condition had suddenly caused him pain. I asked
him if he was all right. He told me that the article that he had been reading had
provided him with the certain insight that the devil had entered the Church.
Remember, my husband was the first prominent German to speak out publicly
against Hitler and the Nazis. His insights were always prescient.

TLM: Did your husband think that the decline in a sense of the
supernatural began around that time [1920s -- from an earlier question], and if
so, how did he explain it?

AVH: No, he believed that after Pius X’s condemnation
of the heresy of Modernism [1907], its proponents merely went underground. He
would say that they then took a much more subtle and practical approach. They
spread doubt simply by raising questions about the great supernatural
interventions throughout salvation history, such as the Virgin Birth and Our
Lady’s perpetual virginity, as well as the Resurrection, and the Holy
Eucharist. They knew that once faith – the foundation – totters, the liturgy
and the moral teachings of the Church would follow suit. My husband entitled
one of his books The Devastated Vineyard. After Vatican II, a tornado seemed to
have hit the Church ...

Even the pagan Plato was open to a sense of the
supernatural. He spoke of the weakness, frailty and cowardice often evidenced
in human nature. He was asked by a critic to explain why he had such a low opinion
of humanity. He replied that he was not denigrating man, only comparing him to
God.

With the loss of a sense of the supernatural, there is a loss of the sense of a
need for sacrifice today. The closer one comes to God, the greater should be
one’s sense of sinfulness. The further one gets from God, as today, the more we
hear the philosophy of the new age: “I’m OK, You’re OK.” This loss of the
inclination to sacrifice has led to the obscuring of the Church’s redemptive
mission. Where the Cross is downplayed, our need for redemption is given hardly
a thought.

The aversion to sacrifice and redemption has assisted the secularization of the
Church from within. We have been hearing for many years from priests and
bishops about the need for the Church to adapt herself to the world. Great
popes like St. Pius X said just the opposite: the world must adapt itself to
the Church.

TLM: From our conversation throughout this afternoon, I must conclude
that you don’t believe that the accelerating loss of the sense of the
supernatural is an accident of history.

AVH: No, I do not. There have been two books published in Italy in recent
years that confirm what my husband had been suspecting for some time; namely,
that there has been a systematic infiltration of the Church by diabolical
enemies for much of this century. My husband was a very sanguine man and
optimistic by nature. During the last ten years of his life, however, I
witnessed him many times in moments of great sorrow, and frequently repeating,
“They have desecrated the Holy Bride of Christ.” He was referring to the
“abomination of desolation” of which the prophet Daniel speaks.

TLM: This is a critical admission, Dr. von
Hildebrand. Your husband had been called a twentieth-century Doctor of the
Church by Pope Pius XII. If he felt so strongly, didn’t he have access to the Vatican to tell
Pope Paul VI of his fears?

AVH: But he did! I shall never forget the private audience we had with
Paul VI just before the end of the [Second Vatican] Council. It was on June 21,
1965. As soon as my husband started pleading with him to condemn the heresies
that were rampant, the Pope interrupted him with the words, “Lo scriva, lo
scriva.” (“Write it down.”) A few moments later, for the second time, my
husband drew the gravity of the situation to the Pope’s attention. Same answer.
His Holiness received us standing. It was clear that the Pope was feeling very
uncomfortable. The audience lasted only a few minutes. Paul VI immediately gave
a sign to his secretary, Fr. Capovilla, to bring us rosaries and medals. We
then went back to Florence
where my husband wrote a long document (unpublished today) that was delivered
to Paul VI just the day before the last session of the Council. It was
September of 1965. After reading my husband’s document, he said to my husband’s
nephew, Dieter Sattler, who had become the German ambassador to the Holy See,
that he had read the document carefully, but that “it was a bit harsh.” The
reason was obvious: my husband had humbly requested a clear condemnation of
heretical statements.

TLM: You realize, of course, Doctor, that as soon as you mention this
idea of infiltration, there will be those who roll their eyes in exasperation
and remark, “Not another conspiracy theory!”

AVH: I can only tell you what I know. It is a matter
of public record, for instance, that Bella Dodd, the ex-Communist who
reconverted to the Church, openly spoke of the Communist Party’s deliberate
infiltration of agents into the seminaries. She told my husband and me that
when she was an active party member, she had dealt with no fewer than four
cardinals within the Vatican
“who were working for us.”

Many a time I have heard Americans say that Europeans “smell conspiracy
wherever they go.” But from the beginning, the Evil One has “conspired” against
the Church – and has always aimed in particular at destroying the Mass and
sapping belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That some
people are tempted to blow this undeniable fact out of proportion is no reason
for denying its reality. On the other hand, I, European born, am tempted to say
that many Americans are naïve; living in a country that has been blessed by
peace, and knowing little about history, they are more likely than Europeans
(whose history is a tumultuous one) to fall prey to illusions ... Judas had
played his hand so artfully that no one suspected him, for a cunning
conspirator knows how to cover his tracks with a show of orthodoxy.

TLM: Do the two books by the Italian priest you mentioned before the
interview contain documentation that would provide evidence of this
infiltration?

AVH: The two books I mentioned were published in 1998
and 2000 by an Italian priest, Don Luigi Villa of the diocese of Brescia, who at the
request of Padre Pio has devoted many years of his life to the investigation of
the possible infiltration of both Freemasons and Communists into the Church. My
husband and I met Don Villa in the sixties. He claims that he does not make any
statement that he cannot substantiate. When Paulo Sesto Beato? (1998) was
published the book was sent to every single Italian bishop. None of them
acknowledged receipt; none challenged any of Don Villa’s claims.

In this book, he relates something that no ecclesiastical authority has refuted
or asked to be retracted – even though he names particular personalities in
regard to the incident. It pertains to the rift between Pope Pius XII and the
then Bishop Montini (the future Paul VI) who was his Undersecretary of State.
Pius XII, conscious of the threat of Communism, which in the aftermath of World
War II was dominating nearly half of Europe, had prohibited the Vatican staff
from dealing with Moscow.
To his dismay, he was informed one day through the Bishop of Up[p]sala (Sweden) that
his strict order had been contravened. The Pope resisted giving credence to
this rumor until he was given incontrovertible evidence that Montini had been
corresponding with various Soviet agencies. Meanwhile, Pope Pius XII (as had
Pius XI) had been sending priests clandestinely into Russia to give comfort to Catholics
behind the Iron Curtain. Every one of them had
been systematically arrested, tortured, and either executed or sent to the
gulag. Eventually a Vatican mole was
discovered: Alighiero Tondi, S.J., who was a close advisor to Montini. Tondi
was an agent working for Stalin whose mission was to keep Moscow informed about
initiatives such as the sending of priests into the Soviet Union.

Add to this Pope Paul’s
treatment of Cardinal Mindszenty. Against his will, Mindszenty was ordered by
the Vatican to leave Budapest. As most
everyone knows, he had escaped the Communists and sought refuge in the American
embassy compound. The Pope had given him his solemn promise that he would
remain primate of Hungary
as long as he lived. When the Cardinal (who had been tortured by the
Communists) arrived in Rome, Paul VI embraced
him warmly, but then sent him into exile in Vienna. Shortly afterwards, this holy prelate
was informed that he had been demoted, and had been replaced by someone more
acceptable to the Hungarian Communist government. More puzzling, and tragically
sad, is the fact that when Mindszenty died, no Church representative was
present at his burial.

Another of Don Villa’s illustrations of infiltration is one related to him by
Cardinal Gagnon. Paul VI had asked Gagnon to head an investigation concerning
the infiltration of the Church by powerful enemies. Cardinal Gagnon (at that
time an Archbishop) accepted this unpleasant task, and compiled a long dossier,
rich in worrisome facts. When the work was completed, he requested an audience
with Pope Paul in order to deliver personally the manuscript to the Pontiff.
This request for a meeting was denied. The Pope sent word that the document
should be placed in the offices of the Congregation for the Clergy,
specifically in a safe with a double lock. This was done, but the very next day
the safe deposit box was broken and the manuscript mysteriously disappeared.
The usual policy of the Vatican
is to make sure that news of such incidents never sees the light of day.
Nevertheless, this theft was reported even in L’Osservatore Romano (perhaps
under pressure because it had been reported in the secular press). Cardinal
Gagnon, of course, had a copy, and once again asked the Pope for a private
audience. Once again his request was denied. He then decided to leave Rome and return to his homeland in Canada. Later,
he was called back to Rome
by Pope John Paul II and made a cardinal.

TLM: Why did Don Villa write these works singling out
Paul VI for criticism?

AVH: Don Villa reluctantly decided to publish the books to which I have
alluded. But when several bishops pushed for
the beatification of Paul VI, this priest perceived it as a clarion call to
print the information he had gathered through the years. In so doing, he was
following the guidelines of a Roman Congregation, informing the faithful that
it was their duty as members of the Church to relay to the Congregation any
information that might militate against the candidate’s qualifications for
beatification.

Considering the tumultuous pontificate of Paul
VI, and the confusing signals he was giving, e.g.: speaking about the “smoke of
Satan that had entered the Church,” yet refusing to condemn heresies
officially; his promulgation of Humanae Vitae (the glory of his pontificate),
yet his careful avoidance of proclaiming it ex cathedra [infallible doctrine];
delivering his Credo of the People of God in Piazza San Pietro in 1968, and
once again failing to declare it binding on all Catholics; disobeying the strict
orders of Pius XII to have no contact with Moscow, and appeasing the Hungarian
Communist government by reneging on the solemn promise he had made to Cardinal
Mindszenty; his treatment of holy Cardinal Slipyj, who had spent seventeen
years in a Gulag, only to be made a virtual prisoner in the Vatican by Paul VI;
and finally asking Archbishop Gagnon to investigate possible infiltration in
the Vatican, only to refuse him an audience when his work was completed – all
these speak strongly against the beatification of Paolo VI, dubbed in Rome,
“Paolo Sesto, Mesto” (Paul VI, the sad one) ...

God alone is the judge of Paul VI. But it cannot be denied
that his pontificate was a very complex and tragic one. It was under him that,
in the course of fifteen years, more changes were introduced in the Church than
in all preceding centuries combined. What is worrisome is that when we read the
testimony of ex-Communists like Bella Dodd, and study Freemasonic documents
(dating from the nineteenth century, and usually penned by fallen-away priests
like Paul Roca), we can see that, to a large extent, their agenda has been
carried out: the exodus of priests and nuns after Vatican II, dissenting
theologians not censured, feminism, the pressure put on Rome to abolish
priestly celibacy, immorality in the clergy, blasphemous liturgies (see the
article by David Hart in First Things, April 2001, “The Future of the Papacy”),
the radical changes that have been introduced into the sacred liturgy (see
Cardinal Ratzinger’s book Milestones, pp. 126 and 148, Ignatius Press), and a
misleading ecumenism. Only a blind person could deny that many of the Enemy’s
plans have been perfectly carried out.

One should not forget that the world was shocked at what Hitler did. People
like my husband, however, actually read what he had said in Mein Kampf. The
plan was there. The world simply chose not to believe it.

But grave as the situation is, no committed Catholic can forget that Christ has
promised that He will remain with His Church to the very end of the world. We
should meditate on the scene related in the Gospel when the apostles’ boat was
battered by a fierce storm. Christ was sleeping! His terrified followers woke
Him up: He said one word, and there was a great calm. “O ye of little faith!”
...

TLM: So you see the only scenario for a solution to the present crisis
as the renewal of a striving for sanctity?

AVH: We should not forget that we are fighting not only against flesh
and blood, but against “powers and principalities.” This should elicit sufficient
dread in us to make us strive more than ever for holiness, and to pray
fervently that the Holy Bride of Christ, who is right now at Calvary,
comes out of this fearful crisis more radiant than ever."

My only argument with any part of this involves the "infallibility" of Humanae Vitae's teaching on contraception. In my opinion, as a definitive statement on faith and morals by a pope, published to the whole world, it did not have to be declared "ex cathedra" to be infallible, as it was already infallible under the ordinary magisterium of the Church. That little quibble aside, this whole testimony should be quite shocking to all who read it.

So, with the testimony of Dr. Hildebrand in hand, let me repeat the pertinent questions again:

What, exactly, is the official Church teaching on Communism today?

And is it any different than it was before?

=====

Sarcastic Acronym Hover-Link Footnotes: For the convenience of those readers using devices that lack a mouse, these footnotes are provided for all webpages, in case any webpage contains any hover-links. (If you don't have a mouse, you can't "hover" it over a link without clicking just to see the simple acronym interpretation. Click a footnote link to see the gory details.)

Excellent essay! Thank you for your tireless work, it is very much appreciated.

Date:Wed May 28 2014From: Vic BiorsethComment:

Andrew:

Thank you sir.

Believe it or not, this topic worries me much, much more than the insidious infiltration of Marxist ideology and the obvious operation of "secret" Marxist plots now dominating the "intelligentsia" and the ruling elites of America. Worst of all ...

Most Americans do not see what's coming, nor do most Catholics have the slightest clue that the Church herself may be infected.

Regards,

Vic

Date: Sat Aug 16 2014From: Vic BiorsethComment:

Changes pursuant to changing the website URL
and name from
Thinking Catholic Strategic
Center to
Catholic American Thinker.

Pulled the trigger on the 301 MOVE IT option
June 1, 2014. Working my way through all the webpages. .

Regards,

Vic

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particularly troubling in these days, involve Papal favor shown to areas
of Godless Marxist ideology, and to the belligerent, invasive,
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Globalist Stupidassism in the Vatican.
Globalist Fraud after Hoax after Scam, all promoted in the Pontifical
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Atheist Genesis:

In the beginning there was nothing, and nothing happened to nothing.
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And then some bits of everything accidentally encountered other bits of everything and formed some new kinds of everything.
And then some bits of everything accidentally arranged themselves into self-replicating bits of everything.
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“ … for I have sworn upon
the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind
of man.” wrote Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush in
the year of our Lord 1800. The context
involved resistance to any form of Christianity or Deism legally imposing
itself throughout the USA. We must wonder what he might say
about our current government's forced imposition of strict secularism – i.e.,
anti-theism – throughout the USA. I submit that legally enforced secularism of society, like theocracy, like Marxism,
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